With the fastest turnaround possible, we are ready to go with our virtual events. Thank you for all your suggestions and feedback.

As we settle into the reality of what the next weeks and months will bring, know that you can jump online in the evening (after the kids are in bed if that’s you) to meet other people and hear from one of our wonderful speakers.

Our usual hosts will be online to greet you (and help you with the tech if you need a hand) and we’ll be running as close to our usual format as possible. No dinner provided, but please join with a glass of wine, mint tea, mug of Horlicks or your usual tipple.

There is no cost to join but places are limited, so please be respectful, turn up if you book on or cancel with plenty of time for someone to take your place.

TableCrowd, along with other communities and event organisers have quickly taken their events online, meaning they are now more widely accessible. A positive amongst the many current negatives.

And there are others too:

• Organisations that would never have considered allowing teams to work from home or flexibly – are now doing so.
• We have a new appreciation for jobs previously undervalued or overlooked. The key workers are not the celebrated startup founders or high earning City workers – they are the cashiers at the supermarket, the people that collect our bins, the local post office owner, the delivery driver and the bus driver.
• People have a new understanding of what an emergency is. The A&E departments have been quiet as people stay away and realise that their sore elbow can wait.
• We are all having an insight into the lives of people that are not able to leave the house. Some of us are having an insight into the lives of lonely folk with no one around them. Knowing how it feels means we are better placed to help.
• A new group of people are upskilling. My mum and her pals are testing out Zoom and working out how they can have their book club online.
• The importance of exercise is becoming more ingrained in our daily routines. We have been limited to going out once a day and this means more people are actually doing something once a day who were not before the restrictions started.
• We are discovering that doing things at home is both possible and convenient – from taking live exercise classes or having a glass of wine with a friend. In some cases, people now have time to do “that thing” they never had time to do/learn/try.
• And people are having time as a family (where they were together when we locked down) in a way which would never have otherwise happened.

Hopefully, the legacy of some of these positives will live on when it’s business as usual again.

If you want to join our virtual events – go here for the details.